Submitted by David on Sun, 02/28/2010 - 19:40.
[Continued From Part 1 Ann Trombley Interview]
[303cycling] Tell us about the work you do with junior cycling?
[Ann] Riding with and training the Juniors is really inspiring and gratifying. The team started when a group of juniors and parents got together and told Linda Behlen, Mike Eubank and myself that they wanted a junior team that would train and race together. We said "let’s do it." It has since evolved into Boulder Junior Cycling which encompasses both the Tokyo Joe's Junior Team and the Boulder Junior Cycling Team.
Tokyo Joe's Junior Team is the U19 team of cat 1 and cat 2 racers from 15-19 years old. They are some incredibly fast kids who are wonderful ambassadors for the sport. They pretty much spank me on the trails. Then we have the U15, Boulder Junior Cycling Team. These are kids from 11-15 years old. They are psyched about riding mountain bikes and would like to try a few races. Some of these kids are also amazingly fast and they will try anything you ask. "Let’s ride across those wet rocks." And they go for it even if they have only been on bikes for a month. The saying "No Fear" comes from this group.
We also embarked on a junior cyclo-cross team this fall. We rode every Tuesday and Thursday after school - rain, sleet or snow. And these guys and gals raced almost every Saturday and Sunday at 8:30 in the morning. Can you say, Dedication?! Although there was also much crying and crashing, these kids toughed out the most brutally snowy cross courses. This was thanks in large part to Larry Leith of Tokyo Joe's, Dave Wert of the Trek Store and Brandon Dwight of Boulder Cycle Sport, just to name a few of our generous sponsors.